Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/352

328 where there had been none before, whether as Roman or Latin colonies, or as accretions round the military stations of the legions, or by the gathering together of smaller communities round a newly founded centre. We are still learning how the local institutions of all towns were regulated on the Roman model with tolerable uniformity; how the central authority slowly gained an increasing influence over them; how the cities were grouped together for purposes of administration, with the worship of the Cæsars as a unifying factor; and how the enjoyment of life was made possible for the inhabitants by the erection of baths, theatres, and porticoes. All these and many others are matters of which we have only recently come to know much or fully to appreciate the value. To take the question of municipal government alone, we have now several valuable documents relating to this subject, which have either recently been discovered, or have only of late years been adequately interpreted, besides innumerable inscriptions of less value individually, yet each making its contribution to our knowledge of the whole. At any moment we may be put in possession of something even more valuable than any of these. The territory of the Roman Empire is full of monuments which still lie buried beneath